A month later, the Beijing International Music Festival released the summary film of the year. This short film captures the colorful movements of 21 sets and 24 concerts of the 24th Beijing International Music Festival, and tries to explore some questions: What is the meaning of classical music in this era? To what extent can a 16-day festival affect our lives?
The opening concert of the 24th Beijing International Music Festival
"Under the Bright Sunshine" Choral Symphony Concert
Conductor/Zhang Guoyong
guru
The 24th Beijing International Music Festival has the theme of "Masters and Dialogue". The tribute to the master is because 2021 is not only the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky's death, the 70th anniversary of Schoenberg's death, the 100th anniversary of Saint-Saën's death, the 110th anniversary of Mahler's death, but also the 100th anniversary of Piazzolla's birth and the 110th anniversary of the birth of Chinese composer Ding Shande.
As Yu Long, chairman of the Beijing International Music Festival Art Committee and a famous conductor, said: "Classical music is originally a traditional industry. Our tribute to the great musicians can see the history of all the art and all the veins of music in this industry. ”
Composer and conductor Tan Dun has been known for his eclectic creative ideas and techniques since the 1980s. When it comes to the musical masters who influenced him, he first mentions Stravinsky. When he was in college, Tan Dun struggled to think about how to integrate Chinese folk music and folk music into symphonic composition, and Stravinsky's music seemed to unfold a musical map in front of him. "Stravinsky's neoclassicism, the GPS of music."
Closing Concert of the 24th Beijing International Music Festival
New works and commemorations
Tan Dun conducts the China Philharmonic Orchestra in a dialogue with the Stravinsky Symphony Concert
Conductor/Tan Dun
Erhu/Lu Yiwen
Tan Dun is a member of the "Level 77 Legend". In the autumn of 1977, the Central Conservatory of Music resumed its first enrollment after the college entrance examination. In April 1978, 30 students were officially enrolled, becoming the only 77 and 78 grades in the history of the Central Conservatory of Music. Tan Dun, Ye Xiaogang, Chen Qigang, Guo Wenjing, Liu Sola... They not only changed the direction of the Chinese music industry, but also used their works to make the world pay attention to the power of Chinese music.
As the only composer in the "77 Legends" who did not have a negative overseas, Guo Wenjing became a representative of China's new wave music in the 1980s, and became famous at home and abroad in the 1990s with several Chinese operas. Since 2003, the Beijing International Music Festival has produced and staged a number of important works by Guo Wenjing, among which the operas "Poet Li Bai", "Diary of a Madman" and "Night Feast" are all Chinese premieres. Speaking of the musicians who influenced him so much, he said that one was Schoenberg and the other was Stravinsky.
On October 12, the Semi-stage version of the opera "The Journey of the Prodigal Son", which was initiated and co-produced by the Beijing International Music Festival, premiered in China
"We always say that we should 'not forget the original heart', for musicians, one of the original intentions should be to always remember and look forward to the past masters, predecessors." Because we are attracted to the door of music by their works, and then spend a long time studying their works. Yu Long said that this is the reason why the 24th Beijing International Music Festival has the theme of "Master and Dialogue".
dialogue
On another dimension, as another part of the annual theme, "Dialogue" is also presented on the stage of the Beijing International Music Festival.
The dialogue takes place between East and West.
In 2021, Chen Qigang entered the 70th year of his life. After graduating from the Central Conservatory of Music, Chen Qigang became a closed disciple of the French composer Messian, and has always been good at combining classical Chinese sensibility with Western music techniques. His compositions were influenced by French music, but with a clear pentatonic scale.
On the stage of the Zhongshan Park Music Hall on October 11, jing huan led the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra to bring two works by Chen Qigang. Also performed are two violin concertos by the French composer Saint-Saën. In the face of the same unpeaceful life, two different composers from China, the West, and near and far, issued different feelings.
Like drama life
The Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra performs the symphony concert of Saint-Saëns and Chen Qigang
Conductor/Jing Huan
Violin/Xu Weiling, Liu Ming
In 1911, Mahler died in his hometown of Vienna, and the composer Ding Shande was born in a dyeing workshop in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China. This coincidence of karmic meetings created the opportunity for the "Singing of Life" concert on October 14. The two musicians have never met, but they both sing the same fun of life.
The singing of life
Concert of art songs commemorating the 110th anniversary of Mahler's death and the birth of Ding Shande
Conductor/Yang Yang
At the closing concert, Tan Dun conducted the China Philharmonic Orchestra on stage at the Poly Theatre and performed three sets of "fire" related repertoire – Stravinsky's few early works "Fireworks", the 1919 version of the famous "Fire⻦" suite, and Tan Dun's concerto "Fire Sacrifice" for the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky's death. "Fire Sacrifice" is adapted from the soundtrack of Tan Dun's own film Nanjing 1937, which he made in 1995. The Two Sets of Blowing Winds on and off the stage played ancient Chinese sacrificial music, and Tan Dun used Chinese national string music to mourn the innocent victims of the war, which is also the path Tan Dun found from Stravinsky's music.
Pipa/Han Yan
Dialogue takes place between popular and classical.
On October 19, singer Cheng Fangyuan and her friends brought a series of interpretations of classic songs. Cheng Fangyuan felt that there was no insurmountable obstacle between popularity and classicism. A graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music, she later introduced the musical The Sound of Music to China and is now back on the stage of the Beijing International Music Festival, where she has chosen the Taikoo Li Red Pavilion in Sanlitun, Beijing's most prosperous city. There is both "My Dear Daddy" by Puccini and Jay Chou's hit single "Mojito".
Dialogue also takes place between seniors and juniors.
On October 18, Stravinsky's later adaptation of Bach's "Average Rhythm Keyboard Song Collection" will be played alongside Schoenberg's early classic "The Night of Sublimation" at the Red Pavilion in Taikoo Li, Sanlitun. The intense uneasiness of "Sublimation Night", combined with the extremely unstable chromatic harmony, has laid the groundwork for Schoenberg's subversion of musical language; "The Average Rhythm Keyboard Song Collection" is the music that Stravinsky played every morning in his final years before his death in New York. Looking back at a turbulent life from Russia to Paris to the New World, this work condenses the complex voice of a giant and a wanderer.
The average age of the two works is played by the Neo-Classical Chamber Orchestra, which is less than 21 years old – younger than the Beijing International Music Festival. The Neoclassical Chamber Orchestra is an orchestra founded by a group of "post-00s" during the epidemic. Jin Yumin, one of the founders of the orchestra and conductor, said that the name "new classical" has two meanings: "On the one hand, it is hoped that we can do some exploration with neoclassical works; 'new' also represents the current era, and classical represents classical music, and we hope to bring some different experiences and different experiences to classical music in the current era." ”
The Neo-Classical Chamber Orchestra won the 2021 Nestlé Cup Young Musician Award, and the Chairman of the Beijing International Music Festival Art Committee, the famous conductor Yu Long (first from left), the artistic director Zou Shuang (first from right), and the Vice President of Group Affairs and Sustainable Development of Nestlé Greater China Fang Juntao (second from right) presented awards to the orchestra's initiators and young conductors, Jin Yumine
Music affects life
The young orchestra performed three times at this year's Beijing International Music Festival. One performed Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Bach at the Taikoo Li Red Pavilion in Sanlitun, and the other performed St. Sang's "Animal Carnival" at the Zhongshan Music Hall, with small musicians on stage, and the stage was also full of children. The third is a midday concert, to get out of the concert hall and face a completely different audience in the public space. The orchestra returned to play the third movement of Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Summer in both concerts, but Jinyukuan said she had a completely different experience.
Since 2019, the Beijing International Music Festival and Beijing Music Radio have jointly launched the "NoonTime Pleasure" series of public welfare performances, and this year's music festival has followed this plan. This year's "Noon Concert" was held at Landmarks in Beijing such as Guomao, CITIC Tower, Sanlitun Taikoo Li, etc., facing office workers, shoppers and pedestrians. From a certain point of view, this is the collision of classical music and life.
This is also a question that the Beijing International Music Festival is trying to explore: what is the meaning of classical music in this era? To what extent can a 16-day festival affect our lives?
Vivaldi and his contemporaries
Chakong Ancient Orchestra Ancient Music Concert
Different individuals are looking for their own answers. On October 10, young conductor Huang Yi conducted the China Philharmonic Orchestra and performed Guo Wenjing's 21st century work in the concert "The Journey of the Heart". Soprano singer Song Yuanming's performance of "The Long Journey" is Guo Wenjing's observation and reflection on this era. He said he wanted to present the appearance of contemporary China in these works. "There are elements of the Chinese tradition, but I want to make a contemporary expression. Or to express the spirit of the present. ”
Since its inception in 1998, the Beijing International Music Festival has created public welfare concerts for children every year. This year, two young pianists selected by BMF appeared on stage with the Neoclassical Chamber Orchestra at the Children's Concert. The Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Youth Art Carnival invited the world's top musicians, including Lang Lang and Lu Siqing, but the protagonists were still the children themselves – children from different regions made friends while cooperating, playing together and listening to each other.
October 23 children's concert "Animal Carnival"
In 2020, facing the challenge of the epidemic, the Beijing International Music Festival launched the concept of "240 hours, music does not stop", allowing online programs and offline performances to create an immersive and diverse music experience. During this year's music festival, a total of 15 performances were broadcast live through BMF Club, Cook Music APP, Beijing Music Radio Weibo, Julang Entertainment, CCTV, Bilibili, Beijing Daily, Beijing Youth Daily, People's Daily and other platforms, with a total of more than 9.6 million views; 5 concerts were broadcast live through Beijing Music Radio FM97.4, with nearly 7 million listeners.
As a person who has witnessed the growth of the Beijing International Music Festival for 24 years, Yu Long not only sees the inheritance and exchange of music, but also sees that music affects life. "After 24 years of work, I have seen that more of us love art and more people love culture. I think if it can be continued, I can imagine that our next generation of young people and their views on the world view will also have a certain impetus. "In addition to being relieved, he felt more responsible." Using the best platform to promote Chinese culture to the world, I think this is the responsibility of our generation and even the next generation, many people. ”